Yahoo! Received 13,000 Data Requests From The Government

Yahoo! has revealed how many data requests that they received from U.S. law enforcement agencies. The National Security Agency (NSA) made between 13,000 and 14,000 data requests from Yahoo! as part of the PRISM system. PRISM is a program that allows the NSA to tap into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies. These companies include Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, and Apple.
The requests were made between December 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013. The requests were “inclusive of criminal, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and other requests.” The most common requests revolved around fraud, homicides, kidnapping, and other criminal acts.

Yahoo! asked the U.S. government to allow FISA requests to be reported separately in the name of transparency. Earlier this month we reported about how Yahoo! tried to get out of joining PRISM.

“Like all companies, Yahoo cannot lawfully break out FISA request numbers at this time because those numbers are classified; however, we strongly urge the federal government to reconsider its stance on this issue,” stated Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer in a blog post. “Democracy demands accountability. Recognizing the important role that Yahoo! can play in ensuring accountability, we will issue later this summer our first global law enforcement transparency report, which will cover the first half of the year. We will refresh this report with current statistics twice a year.”